VSM Wealth Advisory LLC Purchases New Position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP)

VSM Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $115,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in PEP. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in PepsiCo by 104.2% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,705,574 shares of the company’s stock valued at $259,350,000 after acquiring an additional 870,451 shares in the last quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its position in shares of PepsiCo by 12.8% during the fourth quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 41,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,323,000 after purchasing an additional 4,712 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in PepsiCo by 11.0% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 350,225 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,549,000 after purchasing an additional 34,633 shares during the period. IHT Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in PepsiCo by 19.3% during the third quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 32,267 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,493,000 after buying an additional 5,220 shares during the period. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its holdings in shares of PepsiCo by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 1,236,788 shares of the company’s stock valued at $188,031,000 after buying an additional 61,541 shares in the last quarter. 73.07% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PEP has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of PepsiCo from $180.00 to $160.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $171.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Barclays cut PepsiCo from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $168.00 to $156.00 in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded PepsiCo from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of PepsiCo from $185.00 to $168.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $169.88.

PepsiCo Stock Performance

PEP stock opened at $148.11 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $203.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.65. PepsiCo, Inc. has a 1 year low of $141.51 and a 1 year high of $183.41. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $148.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $159.50.

PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.02. PepsiCo had a return on equity of 58.87% and a net margin of 10.43%. The business had revenue of $27.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.89 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.78 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that PepsiCo, Inc. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current year.

PepsiCo Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $1.355 per share. This represents a $5.42 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. PepsiCo’s dividend payout ratio is presently 77.99%.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo, Inc engages in the manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of various beverages and convenient foods worldwide. The company operates through seven segments: Frito-Lay North America; Quaker Foods North America; PepsiCo Beverages North America; Latin America; Europe; Africa, Middle East and South Asia; and Asia Pacific, Australia and New Zealand and China Region.